Some three thousand men and women marched through the town of Kabul, holding Palestinian flags and signs saying “The muezzin law won’t pass” or “Don’t silence the muezzin”, chanting against the legislation and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s parliament on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to two controversial bills that would limit the calls to prayer from mosques in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, including one prohibiting the use of loudspeakers at all hours.

The bills were approved after a heated discussion that turned into shouting matches between ruling coalition members and Arab lawmakers, some of whom tore copies of the legislation and were ejected from the chamber.

While the bills in theory would apply to any religious place of worship, Muslims say they are clearly meant to silence Islam’s traditional call to prayer.

Arab Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained after Israel’s unlawful creation in 1948, and account for about 17.5 percent of the country’s eight million population, with many identifying as Palestinian.